Former trainee teacher looks back on his time at North Wiltshire teacher training course

Sam Fuller is a former PE Trainee Teacher from North Wiltshire School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) and has since become a PE Teacher. He is using his own Deafness to make a difference in the sports he loves.

Since leaving North Wiltshire SCITT, Sam Fuller has gone on to become a PE Teacher at EOTAS – Fernbrook College. Sam has a great love for Rugby and is currently playing for England Deaf Rugby Union as well as Chippenham Rugby Club.

For Sam, North Wiltshire SCITT was the best route to training as a teacher, they were great at helping with his individual needs such as his deafness.

Before Sam began his time with SCITT he had already been working in schools and did not want to go to solely desk based learning, so SCITT was the perfect balance for him. With the advantage of being surrounded by knowledgeable staff, Sam felt he had been able to learn more with on the job training than he ever could have at university.

In his current role as PE Teacher at EOTAS - Fernbrook College, Sam works with pupils on temporary placements and explores pupil behaviours and develops strategies for them to take back into their mainstream school. With such a challenging but rewarding job, Sam has excelled in his first year with setting up his own enrichment programme.

The programme gives pupils the opportunity to get out of school and explore new activities and areas outside of Swindon. Sam has since supported his first group of Year 11s through their exam period, helping them to achieve some amazing grades.

Sam Fuller said: “Personally, I really enjoyed my time at SCITT, I was able to get straight into school teaching from day 1 surrounded by qualified teachers who just wanted you to be the best teacher you could be. Alongside this, the SCITT team were really accommodating of my deafness, ensuring I had access to everything such as a note taker, scripts, and subtitles on teams and also PowerPoints from sessions to enable me to focus on content rather than finding the notes myself.

"The PE sessions were great, they were hands-on giving me the opportunity to refresh my skills in sports and develop an understanding of different teaching methods.

"It was also useful to spend time in sessions with teachers of other subjects to pick up on tips for classroom management, as well as sharing tips for relationship building which PE teachers seem to do really well. I have really enjoyed my first year of teaching.

"My enrichment programme has helped me develop great relationship-building skills and allowed me to provide opportunities that my students might not have had before. I am really looking forward to seeing what the next stage of my career is and I hope I can continue to have a positive impact on the children I work with.”